Access-restricted-item

true

Acknowledgment

Source material provided by OC Public Libraries. Managed by California Revealed.

Addeddate

2017-10-25 17:34:07

Color

Color

Date-published

2017-06-12

Genre

Oral histories

Identifier

corcl_000080

Interviewee

Nieblas, Jerry

Interviewer

Enos, Lee;Stone, Nelda

Location

San Juan Capistrano (Calif.)

Projectidentifier

caps00003107

Run time

00:05:56

Scanner

Internet Archive Python library 0.7.9

Sound

Sound

Source

mp4: 1 file

Title-collection-guide

OC Stories
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8ns10b6/

Title-series

Indigenous Voices of San Juan Capistrano: The Acjachemen (Juaneño) Indian Community

Transcript

Text: ‚Jerome Stephen Nieblas, Acjachemen Tribal Member‚ We didn't lay down and die and go away. We survived. We are a survival people. And, interestingly enough, that the strongest ones of our people, this is before your liberation movements or anything else, were the women. The native women, the early California women, were really strong women. I think back, women complain now, I think the majority of those native women that I grew up with, and around, most of them had jobs. Most of them had very large families. Most of them were the backbone and structure of the home. Most of them made the decisions. Most of them were the reason the home and the family unit stayed together, because the men were always off working trying to support their family, and they weren't rich people. We weren't rich people. San Juan is a very poor community surrounded by farms and ranches, but it was very poor community. But the women kept those, I have to give credit to where credit is due, the women were definitely the backbone of San Juan Capistrano. Those early women were very, very strong. I don't know where they got their strength. They would lose their children, they would lose family members, and they would go on with life. They would continue on. Remarkable women. So, I have to give a little plug to those women, those Native American women in Early California women. Text: ‚Apolonia Montano‚ Talk about a remarkable woman. She is a whole story in herself. Here is a woman, if she was living today, she would be giving this country, this government, this community, a run for it's money. I know she would. She is born around 1835. She died in 1917. She was born around 1835 at Mission San Luis Rey. They claimed she was Juane±o. She was probably an Acjachemen, which incorporated the Luise±o people at that time. I think she's Luise±o. She was born at Mission San Luis Rey around 1835. She came and had contact with that adobe thru her grandfather Thomas Gutierrez who was a master carpenter for the missions, and he must have been outstanding, because they granted him this adobe. They had built forty in San Juan Capistrano as "housing" for people that were going to be brought into the working force, the mission system, to work. Thomas Gutierrez, her grandfather, got one of these homes. Long, long story short. She was able... no one is quite sure how she managed to do it... I think it's her name... she was able to get a deed for that property... no one knows how... this was at a time when women could not have deeds to land... only the male could... but she got a deed to the land... She was also the one who kept the mission going when there was no priest there. She would give the church a run for their money now a days I know she would. She did everything in San Juan that a priest would normally do, which the exception of celebrating the mass. She baptized, anointed the sick, saw to the dying, buried the dead, made sure people were prepared for the sacraments when a priest did come up from Mission San Luis Rey, taught the catechism, she was also a Midwife so a lot of the children in the community were born at her hands. But something even more, in a time when there was no specialized medicine, Apolonia was treating women in her adobe with female related illnesses, she was treating in that adobe with illnesses. Apolonia had grown... she grew all her own herbs, and treated the women with those herbs, and she was successful at it. There was no Doctor here, she was the Doctor. So, she was... also the thing that surprised a lot of people... she was Capitan of the community. Again, something unheard of for a woman to take on that role, because that meant, back then, Capitan, she was the arbitrator, the mediator, the Mayor, the Governor, what she said went. People would come to her. So, she was very much in control of the community. She was also the one that when the priests did finally come to the mission, even if it was for a short term, she would take the priest thru and say this was here, this was there, this is our Chapel, here is where this is at, here is where that is at, and give them an update. I think the interesting thing about Apolonia too is when you go thru the baptismal records during her adult life at the mission, when there was no priest there and you knew that she was performing the baptisms, the priests were very clever, when they came up from San Luis Rey, they protected themselves, let's put it that way, so the entries are in Spanish, but they show themselves as the priest and minister of the sacrament, and they show her as a Padrina, a Nina, a Godmother. So, they've sort of a switched the roles around there. I think to protect them, but not doing her any justice, but them forgetting there's a whole oral history on her that we have. So, there is a remarkable woman.

Year

2017

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